SEC games set, now we're filling in the blanks in Auburn's 2012 football schedule

Gene Chizik: In the Georgia Dome this week, and for next year's season-opener against Clemson (Todd Van Emst photo)

ATLANTA -- Auburn traded a road game at Florida for a home game against Texas A&M and saw South Carolina rotate off its schedule in favor of Vanderbilt for 2012.

Coach Gene Chizik had no complaints with Auburn's SEC schedule that was released Wednesday following some fancy shuffling by the league office following expansion that brought A&M and Missouri into the conference.

Auburn didn't release its full schedule Wednesday, but we've filled in some blanks.

"I think we have a great schedule next year. I think our home schedule is really good," Chizik said.

Auburn will play BCS title game participants LSU and Alabama, plus SEC East champion Georgia in 2012, as the Tigers do every year. The league canceled the Tigers' return trip to Florida after the Gators played in Auburn this season.

Auburn won't play its first SEC home game until the fourth week of the season when LSU visits. Arkansas is next in, in the middle of the season, before Texas A&M pays its first visit to Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Rival Georgia is the last SEC home game on Nov. 10.

The Tigers open SEC play on the road in Week Two at Mississippi State. Auburn plays Ole Miss and Vanderbilt on the road in consecutive weeks in the middle of October, a month in which it plays four league games. The Tigers will finish the regular-season at Alabama on Nov. 24.

Auburn hasn't released its entire non-conference schedule, but knows it will open the season in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against Clemson on Sept. 1 in the Georgia Dome, where the Tigers meet Virginia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Saturday.

Auburn also has slotted another non-conference game between rivals Georgia and Alabama. That's Alabama A&M on Nov. 17.

Auburn also will play, in order, non-conference opponents Louisiana-Monroe and New Mexico State on two of the following dates: Sept. 15, Sept. 29 and Nov. 3. The other date will be Auburn's bye week.

"When you play in this league, the eight games you got to play in this conference schedule, they're a bear," Chizik said "We've got our work cut out for us.